Day 64: Dear Juliet...

Tuesday - July 20, 2010:

The only thing blog-worthy about this morning was one thing and one thing only... JULIET!! Yes, as I mentioned earlier, Verona's main tourist attraction is Juliet's Balcony. So in our brief tour of the city with Cinzia, this is what we were all looking forward to. Seeing the movie Letters to Juliet had prepped me for this infamous sight and gotten me really excited. I though, maybe if I channel my inner Amanda Seyfreid and write a letter, I'll have a fabulous whirl-wind Italy adventure waiting for me... a girl can dream, right? So eveyone jumped on this fairytale (que the Taylor Swift) bandwagon and wrote a deep, profound, hysterical letter to Juliet! It was the highlight of my day -- everyone and their letters were cracking me up! Here are a few I was able to document:

{Shellie writing her heart-felt letter to Juliet}

{And it reads: "Yo J-dawg, work your magic. Peace out, S-homie" -- I can't wait to see Juliet's response}

{Some random place in Verona that really has no significance -- it's just pretty!}

{The writing session. Everyone brainstorm!}

{Kate and Katie with their letters. I love Katie's -- "Juliet, I need a HERO"}

{Me with my finished product -- Juliet is in for a real treat with this letter}

{Juliet may be a little busy after we visit her wall...}

{Quite possibly my favorite picture of the day. 1) Because I love Katherine 2) Because of what her letter says -- "Dear Juliet, I love you. Please bring me my own Romeo. Someone I can kick it in the mountains with. Please and thank you." -- Pure writing genius}

When we turned down this alley and saw the biggest crowd so far in Verona, we figured we must have made it to the wall. So turns out there really is a huge wall where people write love letters -- some hopeful wishes and some happy praises. I was in awe that this many people came here to contribute to this visual appreciation of love -- there were letters and grafitti everwhere! We all added ours to the wall and took some funny pictures. We saw the balcony (Romeo, Romeo.. Where for art thou?!) and then were free the rest of the afternoon!

{Juliet's House has it's own street sign (with it's own authentic Italian graffiti)}

{Look at the wall of this small tunnel -- covered floor to ceiling with letters}

{Some of the group in front of the wall -- letters posted and ready for love}

{I loved this}

{Posting my letter. My adhesive of choice? A Band-Aid. I knew keeping those suckers in my purse would come in handy at some point during my trip!}

{Andddd my letter. I'll let you know when she responds! (Oh and Connally, I didn't forget about your request--I gave you a shout out in the P.S.S.)}

{Of course I had to take a picture of Katherine's letter going up on the wall}

{Juliet's Balcony}

{Check out that crowd coming to see this little balcony!}

{L.O.V.E.}

I know I said that was the only thing blog-worthy, but I can't keep these other Verona pictures from y'all. So here are a few other pictures from the morning:

{All of the group on the balcony -- ready for our shining moment in the Verona Theatre!}

{Inside the Verona Theatre}

{One of the squares in Verona}

{More of the pretty square...}

{Still more of the square... I guess I ahd to get it from all angles}

{The tower inside the square -- I like the striped marble on the outside of the building}

Everyone met back up at the hotel and we grabbed our luggage and headed out in the scorching sun to the bus. Now we're headed straight to Milan. I am sad to report that we are skipping the Lake Come visit because the Silk Factory we were going to tour is closed! I guess George Clooney (he has a house there) will have to wait to see me until next time I'm in the Lake Como area. Hope he'll survive this separation!

{So sad to be leaving Europa Hotel...}

A two hour bus ride and short walk got us to our hotel in Milan. Now, it's not your Hotel Europa, but Hotel Ibis is still a solid choice. It has A/C and free breakfast, but lacking in the WiFi area (and a canned Coke Zero from their vending machine is 2,00 Euro... Who do they think I am? A soft-drink rookie? I'm not falling for that...).

We all checked in and met back downstairs, where we all departed for our short tour of Milan (Milano in Italian... Makes you think of Peppridge Farm Milano Cookies doesn't it?). We took the Metro to the town's Duomo. I thought we were done with churches and Duomos, but apparently not. And apparently they saved the best for last because this Duomo was humungous! It is Gothic Architecture, so it reminded me a lot of Gaudi's Sagrada Familia in Barcelona with all of the intricate facade details and spirals. No wonder it's so amazing--it took four centuries to build! And you want to know the funny thing? They don't know who the original architect was, so some man came up with this beautiful building design that is still being appreciated today and he isn't even getting credit for it! Isn't that so sad?

{The side of the Duomo in Milan -- check out all of that Gothic Architecture (See, I have learned something in class over here this summer)}

{The Facade of this building was amazing}

After we took in what we hoped would be our last Duomo (they all start to run together... kind of like all the geysers in Jackson Hole...), we went a few steps into our next stop -- Milan's first shopping mall. This was very interesting to me because it was like an indoor/outdoor deal. It was all these shops that were covered by this huge dome roof.. Yet it was still outside.. It was very odd! Fun fact? There was a McDonalds across from the Prada flagship store... Those don't fit together. Another fun fact? There's a legend that if you spin with your left heel three times on the picture of the bull's man part in the marbled tile, it'll bring you good luck (odd, I know). So of course we all gave it a whirl (literally)! We figured we've been extra lucky today with our letters to Juliet and spinning superstition.... I can't wait to see what the future holds!!

{The first mall in Milan -- it's indoor/outdoor and really interesting}

{Spinning on the bull for good luck}

{Go Katherine Go}

{The lucky spot is pretty worn down...}

{Yes, every person in the group participated in this event}

{The Duomo again}

Our short tour ended at 7:00 and we had to be ready for appertivo at 7:30, so we all hopped on the Metro and headed back to the hotel.

Appertivo is Italy's version of Happy Hour and it started in Milan, so it's a pretty big deal here. Auburn knows this, so I guess that's why tonight we have a program-paid Appertivo dinner! Culturing ourselves -- I love it. So we hurriedly got dressed and left the hotel at 7:30 on the dot. At Appertivos, you buy a drink and get as many tapas/appertizers at the buffet as you want. And usually people stay a while because they're technically just paying for drinks! So we got our cramped table of 20 and ordered up! After confusing our nice waitress with all the "I'll have what she's having...scratch that for this... And make that two", we darted for the buffet. The selection was good, but do you know what was my favorite? This dish that had roasted potatoes, greenbeans and slices of hot dog...! Doesn't that sound like Italy's version of Beanie Weenies? It was so tasty! So we sipped our drinks and ate our appertizers, enjoying the night. We reminisced on memories from the summer and of all the reunions we want to have when we get back... It was a well enjoyed night!

{Kasi and I at Appertivo}

{My plate at Appertivo -- I know it doesn't look appetizing, but I had to show you so you would get the gist of how random the assortment of food was, and also so you can see how Americans do Appertivo in Italy}

{Becca and Meg with their delicious fruity drinks}

{Caitlyn's Mojito -- the bartender was an artist}

{Shellie, Becca, Meg and Lindsey enjoying their Appertivo}

{And some more of us at the restaurant...}

{We passed a Vespa store on the way home -- it made me think of my mom on her new Vespa! The Harbarger's go Italian...}

For dessert? An episode of The Bachelorette! Yes, Katie had brought her computer specifically so she could download this episode for us all to view Tuesday night. So we got back to the hotel, full of high hopes and episode predictions, when we discover that the 10,00 Euro Internet we all chipped in for DIDN'T WORK. Yes, you should have seen the disappointment on our faces. Technically 28 minutes of the downloading worked, but that's because she did it in Verona. The Vodafone service here (that we paid for) didn't.. So here's the dilemma: do we give ourselves a little taste and watch the 28 minutes, or do we wait to watch it all when it can fully download? Of course we go for the preview! So we start, 12 of us piled into one tiny hotel room, watching on Katie's computer. We are knee deep in the drama when BAM! It stops. Aaahhhh! We all screech (probably going to get a noise complaint) and are so upset -- we knew this would happen but were still so depressed! We try all methods of watching the episode and nothing works... So we throw in the towel until a future time when WiFi is on our side! (So don't give me any spoilers...)

Again, it's night time and I'm in my bed asking myself "Is day 2 really over?" This is tragic -- it's flying by so fast. Tomorrow is a busy day, but hopefully we'll find some time to slow down!

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